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On August 4, 1952, China's men's national football team were defeated 4-0 by Finland in Helsinki. A disappointing result by any measure but, in truth, the result of this momentous yet rarely talked about game was largely irrelevant. Merely being there was a victory.

Three years prior to the match against Finland, the People's Republic of China (PRC) had been founded. Before this, China's footballers had competed for the Republic of China national team and even played at two Olympics; the last pre-World War II games and the first post-WWII games in Nazi Germany and England respectively.

In 1949 though, the Republic of China's national team were left in a peculiar position after they, alongside the former government, had been exiled to Taiwan. As the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki approached, they applied to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to take part, seemingly unaware that the PRC had done the same.

After deliberation, the IOC took the unusual step of approving both applications, meaning that two opposing Chinese teams would be competing in the Olympic Games, or so it seemed.

Among the first to recognise China

Upon hearing of the IOC's decision, the Republic of China immediately withdrew its application and decided to stay at home, and so it was left to the PRC, with no established group of professional footballers and with just a few days' notice, to represent their country on the world stage.

Why did the IOC and the Olympic's Organising Committee accept the application of this new nation? Well, just two years previously Finland had taken the step to become one of the first Western powers to recognise the People's Republic of China as a nation, which suggests goodwill was there.

Between this establishment of relations on October 28, 1950 and the beginning of the 1952 Olympic Games, China had established ties with a further 25 foreign countries, but that's not to say their participation was without opposition.

The United States and China were still battling it out in the Korean War at this time and backed by the US, Taiwanese authorities pushed hard to reverse the IOC and Olympic Committee's decision.

Symbolic importance

Even domestically, opponents stated that sending a rushed delegation at the last minute was a mistake. Premier Zhou Enlai, who wouldn't attend himself, appeared to appreciate the symbolic importance of the delegation's attendance, stating that "just being there is a victory".

Excitement and pressure were present in equal measure as the team, along with 25 other athletes and officials, prepared for the journey. Many of the players had never travelled by plane or even gone abroad. The significance was not lost on them.

Speaking to China Daily in 2008, former striker Fang Renqiu alluded to the approach taken to motivate the group. "We were all very excited by the great honour of going to the Olympics," he said. "We trained very hard because we were told that 3,000 Chinese farmers had to work for a whole year to support one of us. We could not let them down."

The exact accuracy of this statement remains unknown, most likely it was a way of unifying the players behind the cause of the people. It's an age old trick, and a common tactic in football, not much different from a Premier League manager telling his squad that the fans in the stadium had saved up their extra money all week to come and watch them.

Whether it worked depends on your interpretation. They undoubtedly represented their country with honour and pride, but failed to compete as heroically as hoped - however, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Missed more than half

The Games themselves went off without a hitch and introduced the sporting world to, besides China, the Soviet Union, Indonesia, Thailand and Israel. The football competition was won by arguably the greatest side to never win a World Cup, in the form of the Ferenc Puskas-inspired Hungary.

By all accounts, the entire event was a spectacular success. Sadly for the Chinese delegation, they missed more than half of it.

Arriving on July 29, they missed the first ten days of competitive action, with just the sole swimmer Wu Chuanyu among them arriving on time to actually compete. In a recurring theme for the trip, he didn't make it past the first round of the 100m backstroke.

Having missed out on the football competition, Finland offered their Chinese guests the opportunity to take part in an exhibition match, the People's Republic of China's first friendly match against European opponents. Fang's comments that the team "realised the huge gap between us and the rest of the world" afterward suggest the result came as a shock. It probably shouldn't have.

It wasn't about winning

While this was a Chinese national team, it wasn't quite the Chinese national team. The side that had represented China in previous years and had experience abroad was now exiled in Taiwan. This was a team made up mostly of students and amateurs. Young men who had been convinced, or in some cases forced, to compete for their country and often sacrificed much to do so.

When Fang decided to accept the Chinese government's offer to join the newly assembled national team in early 1952, he was on the verge of graduating from maritime college, a career that he claims would have offered wages of between 20 and 70 times higher than those available to a footballer at the time.

We would love to say that Fang went on to become a legend of Chinese football, that he is heralded back home and that youngsters grow up wanting to emulate his heroics. But, much like the game he gave up his career for, there is little to read about the man anywhere. You'll find little trace of him online and his 100 plus goals in 130 matches are not listed, possibly due to a lack of official records at the time.

One imagines however that this would matter little to Fang and his teammates. It wasn't about glory, it wasn't about winning. This was about China arriving, and despite being ten days late, they did just that.